Sobering thoughts as we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Each year we celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and talk about how Dr. King worked for justice. We read, recite and play recordings of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech from 1963 with that marvelous rhetorical flourish about being judged by character rather than the color of our skin. And, for the most part, we forget about the searing judgement he made in that same speech that our society has not delivered on its promises.

I have no doubt that Dr. King would deliver that same uncomfortable judgement to our ears today. He would still be working for justice. He would still be exhorting us to take up the challenge and to see America as it is with its unfulfilled promises. 

We learned this year that America has still not delivered on its promises of economic equality. Twenty times it hasn't delivered! The average white person, we have learned, now has 20 times more wealth than the average person of color. The gap jumped from the already unconscionable 8 times to 20 times less wealth.

The brutally predictable deleterious ramifications for this generation and future generations of African Americans are breathtaking. From where will the resources for locating near the good jobs come? From where will the resources to send children to good high schools and colleges come?

You see, despite the fact that the mortgage crisis and the Great Recession affected everyone, these events pillaged the wealth of the already precarious African American family. Families held back by years of discrimination were determined to join the ranks of middle class home ownership and took the chance offered them. Predatory lending practices took advantage of those aspirations, and combined with crashing home values the wealth of aspiring home owners was looted. The consequences are devastating.

It is not hard to imagine Dr. King again mounting the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivering a Jeremiad. The promissory note marked insufficient funds has again and again been returned.

In metropolitan Detroit, low literacy rates and too many people with limited economic resources for something as basic as heat are symptoms of a society that remains manifestly unequal.

Our commitment as an interfaith community must be to face such challenges boldly with "eyes on the prize" as Dr. King did almost forty-four years ago. As we work together, seeking justice, bridging barriers, we certainly hope that the work we do honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.